Capitalism can’t be reformed away

Socialism is the current buzzword – and/or bogeyman –  in the political landscape in the US because of the election of Mamdani in New York and Wilson in Seattle, and it’s become a political football to be kicked around.

Sadly, the likes of Mamdani and Wilson – and the wider DSA – are offering little more than a sanitized version of capitalism . . .  a class society without the sharp edges.

Their recent electoral success is obviously a visceral reaction to the all too real affordability crisis currently hurting so many people in the US right now, and there is no denying their political charisma but capitalism cannot be run in the interests of the majority. Any attempt to ‘reform it away’ will come up against the harsh reality of how capitalism functions, and how it has always functioned.

This view can get lost in the weeds of the current 24/7 political circus that is fed to us every day. We are led to believe by the media and our algorithms that politics is all about this personality versus that personality. Pick your poison, and take your medicine.

Rather than relying on or falling behind charismatic leaders or a radical version of the Democratic Party, the WSPUS is putting the only genuine radical alternative to capitalism and current class society.

The only way to build a socialist movement is to ‘make socialists’, and that can only happen if you are honest and forthright in putting socialism front and center in your literature and propaganda.